


An Unexpected Arrival

by afteriwake



Series: Lingering Winter [18]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-16
Updated: 2012-10-16
Packaged: 2017-11-16 11:29:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/538954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not all of his friends survived the battle in Karakura Town.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Unexpected Arrival

“Captain Kurosaki!”

Isshin and Ichigo turned around. “Yes?” they chorused.

“My apologies, Captain-Commander. I meant your son.” The young shinigami bowed to them and then she focused on Ichigo once she stood up. “I have received a message from Kuukaku Shiba for you. She says that a friend of yours has arrived at her home and you need to go there now.”

“Did Urahara say anything about allowing anyone to come through?” Isshin said, his brow furrowing slightly.

“No. And if it was him or Yoruichi, Kuukaku would have just said so,” Ichigo said. Then it dawned on him. “Oh no.”

Isshin’s eyes widened. “Someone died.”

“Yeah. Damn it! I thought we’d saved everyone!”

Isshin placed a hand on his son’s shoulder. “Our business can wait, or I can continue this with your Lieutenant. Go find out who it was.”

“Talk to Hinamori,” he said with a nod. Isshin lifted his hand up and Ichigo hurried out of the room. They’d managed to stabilize some of the headquarters and right now Isshin, Ichigo and Hitsugaya’s squads were all in the same place. In the two weeks since the fighting had ended, he had assumed that all of his friends were still alive. So who had he missed? Who had died?

He got to the Shiba residence as quickly as he could. Koganehiko and Shiroganehiko were outside, guarding the door. “Ichigo!” Koganehiko said. “You got here quickly.”

“I left as soon as I got the message,” he said. “Who was it? Who came here?”

“A girl who looked slightly older than your sisters,” Shiroganehiko said. “Yuzu recognized her immediately and she has been caring for her inside.”

“She didn’t have red hair?” he asked. Both men shook their heads. And then it hit him. “Tatsuki,” he said quietly. The two men moved out of the way and he made his way down the long flight of steps. If Tatsuki had died when the fighting was happening, why did it take her two weeks to find the Shiba residence? The thought troubled him as he made his way down to the main part of the house. “Yuzu! Karin!” he called out.

“Shh!” Karin hissed, sticking her head out of a doorway. “You’re gonna wake her up.”

Ichigo got closer. “It’s Tatsuki, isn’t it?”

Karin nodded slowly. “No one would help her find this place,” she said sadly. “Everyone is still so scared from the Hollow attack. At least she landed near this gate. She tried to go into Seireitei and Jidanbou stopped her. When he found out she was looking for us he gave her directions and saw that she got some food. She’d barely had anything to eat in a week and a half, Ichigo.”

“Ichigo?” a quiet voice called from inside.

Ichigo moved into the doorway and saw Tatsuki try and sit up. Yuzu gently pushed her back down onto the bed. “You need to rest, Tatsuki-san,” Yuzu said. “Even if you’re awake, you should still lie down.”

“I’m here, Tatsuki,” he said. Yuzu moved out of the way and after he came in she and Karin left to go stand in the doorway. “What happened?”

“I was…I was in a building, and the roof collapsed,” she said, shutting her eyes. “I was trapped there, and conscious for…I don’t know how long. And then I just stopped being conscious. The next thing I know I’m in Soul Society, and I started to look for the Shibas like you told me to.”

“Do you know what district you were in?”

“The fourth, or the third. I’m not sure.” She opened her eyes again. “I thought you would be here.”

“I’m a shinigami. I live somewhere else,” he said. “Yuzu, Karin, my mother and her new family live here with Kuukaku and Ganju, my aunt and uncle.” He grimaced. “Just don’t ever call Ganju my uncle in front of him. He gets an ego trip out of it.”

“Your mother’s here?” she asked, her eyes widening.

Ichigo nodded. “You saw the Hollows, right? During all the fighting?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

“One of those killed her when I was a kid. When my father killed it about six years ago, her soul came here. We just found her a year ago.”

“She spent all that time alone?” Tatsuki asked, trying to sit up again.

“I’d listen to Yuzu. If she says to lay down then you should lay down.”

She glared at him slightly and then promptly crashed back down onto the bed. “My parents might have died, too, Ichigo. Am I ever going to find them?”

“Were you all in that building?”

She nodded. “Yes. But I don’t know if they…or when they…” She sighed. “I just don’t know if they survived.”

“I’ll ask Urahara if he knows and if they did I’ll help look for them,” he said. “I promise.”

“Thank you,” she said with a very small smile. “Your entire family is here?”

He nodded. “My father and I live in Seireitei, and everyone else lives here.”

“It must be good to have them so close.”

“I don’t visit here as much as I should,” he admitted. “And with the way Seireitei was destroyed, I think I’ll have even less time now.”

“What happened?” she asked.

“The Hollows that destroyed Karakura Town were from here,” she said. “They were the result of an experiment to stop the other guys who were destroying Karakura Town. They destroyed Seireitei first and then some escaped to the living world and others came out to the Rukongai, the place where you ended up.” He paused. “I can’t tell you who made the building collapse, though.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said sadly. “Am I the only one here?”

He nodded. “Orihime and Ishida were at the relief center we’d set up, and I haven’t seen Chad but he was told to come here if anything happened.”

“So I was the unlucky one,” she said, shutting her eyes. “Figures.”

Ichigo reached over to her and stopped with his hand hovering over hers. “You know people here, though. You’re not alone.” And with that, he set his hand over hers. She turned her palm up and grasped his for a moment before letting it go. “I’ll talk to Urahara as soon as I can about your parents.”

“Thank you,” she said. She opened up her eyes again. “Where am I supposed to go now?”

“Nowhere,” Yuzu said from the door. “Kuukaku-kun said you can stay here with us.”

“That’s good,” she said with a small smile.

“I’ll find time to come visit more,” Ichigo said. “I promise.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“I have a capable Lieutenant and my father is Captain-Commander. If I want to leave for a few hours to come visit I don’t think anyone will stop me,” he said with a slight smirk.

Her smile widened a bit. “Do you have to leave now?”

“Not now, but soon,” he said. “I can stay here for maybe an hour?”

“I’ll try and stay awake that long,” she said.

Ichigo nodded and turned to his sisters. “Can you guys give me an hour with her? Alone?”

Karin nodded. “Sure thing. But you have to remind Toshiro that he promised to come see me tomorrow. I know you guys are busy, but…”

Ichigo grinned. “I work in the same building as him. Trust me, it’s very obvious he’s waiting for tomorrow.”

“You have a boyfriend, Karin?” Tatsuki asked, grinning slightly.

“Maybe, kinda…yeah,” she said, blushing slightly.

“That’s good,” she replied. “I feel like I’ve missed so much since you two came here. And Ichigo, you stopped visiting as much, so…”

“We can spend the next hour catching up, if you want,” he said as Yuzu and Karin left the doorway.

“I think I’d like that,” she said, trying to sit up again. This time she managed to without crashing down, and she turned slightly to face him. “You never really talked about what you do here.”

“Well, I’m a Captain of a bunch of shinigami who are supposed to keep the Hollows from attacking. I’m in charge of about ten people right now since we started shifting squads around. I should introduce you to Momo. I think you’d like her.”

“Are you two…?” she asked, leaving it hanging.

Ichigo laughed. “No, she’s my Lieutenant. She’s dating someone who used to be in our squad and is now in the 8th Division. I’m not with anyone. Too busy.” He looked at her. “Were you in a relationship?”

She shook her head. “Same reason as you. With training and stuff, I was just too busy.” She sighed. “Maybe I should have taken the time…”

“Hey, you can’t think about that,” he said quietly. “There’s a lot of things I wish I could have done but if you dwell on it you just get depressed.”

“I keep forgetting you died first. I just got so used to you coming and visiting.” She shut her eyes. “Why did you stop?”

He was quiet. “You want the truth?” When she nodded, he took a deep breath. “I felt really…alone. I’d go visit and you all had moved on without me. I wasn’t a part of your lives anymore. And my new life started to become more important, I guess.”

“I always thought it was about Orihime and Ishida,” she said.

Ichigo grinned, and then he began to laugh. “What, that? No, I wouldn’t stop visiting just because of _that_. I was happy for her. I knew she liked me, around the time the fighting ended. I just…I didn’t feel the same way, that’s all. So when they got together I was happy that she was happy. It was nice to see her smile again.”

“Yeah, he really does make her smile,” she replied, opening her eyes again. “I wonder how she’ll handle this.”

“I don’t know,” Ichigo said, sobering up slightly. “But she’s welcome in Soul Society whenever she wants to visit, so if she’s too upset maybe she can come visit and see that you’re okay. We can work something out.”

“You can?” she asked, her eyes widening.

“Yeah. I mean, I don’t think you can do what I did and go visit, but there’s ways for living people to come here. She’s done it before. She was here before she got kidnapped all those years ago, remember? And, well…Dad’s in charge. And he always liked you. So like I said, we can work something out. First thing I’m going to do is get a message to Urahara to give to her, when I get back.”

“Can you tell her I’m okay here? That I made it safely?”

He nodded. “I can tell her that, yeah.” He was quiet for a few moments. “Did it hurt?”

“Dying? No, it didn’t,” she said, shaking her head slightly. “It was more like I went to sleep and then woke up somewhere else, though.”

“Yuzu has nightmares from how she died,” Ichigo said. “Karin was shot first, and she died instantly. Yuzu…didn’t.”

“I never knew that,” Tatsuki said, shocked. “Is she okay?”

“Mom told me she’s better now, but she still has nights where she doesn’t sleep much. But…if it happens to you, she’ll understand. You can talk to her about it. And maybe it will do her some good to talk about it.”

“What about you? Do you have nightmares?”

“Not about my death, because I was doing shinigami stuff when it happened, but…yeah, I have nightmares about other things.”

“Do you ever talk about it?”

He shook his head. “Not really.” He paused, looking down. “I have nightmares that I can’t save everyone. And I tried, with the fighting in Karakura Town. I should have gotten you and everyone else to safety, somewhere, somehow.”

She reached over and touched his face gently. He looked up and saw she was looking at him with a very determined look on her face. “This wasn’t your fault, Ichigo. I don’t know who destroyed the building I was in, but it probably wasn’t you. And you didn’t start the fight in the first place, right?”

“No,” he said.

“Then I’m going to blame the people who started it.”

“Arrancars. They were Hollows that took off their masks and became more human,” he said quietly. “They’re not people.”

“Then I’ll blame them,” she said, letting go of his face. “I’ll blame them, not you.”

He looked over at her and nodded. “And Mayuri.”

“Who’s Mayuri?”

“The guy who turned the shinigami into Hollows. I’m glad he’s gone. I never liked him anyway.”

“Then I blame him too.” She sighed, laying back down. “Maybe I shouldn’t have sat up.”

“If you want to sleep, I can go now.”

She shook her head. “Please stay. Just…if I fall asleep…”

“How about I stay until you fall asleep?” he said, moving his chair closer to the bed.

“I’d like that,” she said, yawning. She turned on her side, facing him. “I got so used to seeing you in that fake body. You look so young still.”

“I was almost an adult when my body got destroyed,” he said.

“But…I’m older than you. And I look older. It’s...weird.”

“You don’t look older. You just look better,” he said with a slight grin.

“You’re lying to make me feel better.”

“No, I’m not,” he said seriously. “I haven’t seen you in over a year. You look the same, really, just…better. I don’t really know how to describe it.”

She reached over and took his hand in hers. “Thank you, Ichigo.” She shut her eyes again. “You’re going to stay until I fall asleep?”

“I’m not going to move from here,” he said with a nod.

“Good,” she said quietly.

Within ten minutes her breathing had slowed, and the grasp of his hand had softened slightly. Still, he stayed. He hadn’t been able to save her, but he’d be damned if he’d let her down now. He made a promise to himself that he would visit more, spend time with her and with his family, and do everything he could to make it easier for her. He owed her that much. When he finally pulled his hand free from hers he reached over and pulled the blankets up around her before quietly leaving the room. For now, she would sleep, and he’d try to visit tomorrow.


End file.
